Democrat Manny Innamorato didn't let any grass grow under his feet following his loss to Republican Vinny Ignizio in the Feb. 20 City Council special election.

Innamorato has now saddled up to help registered Conservative John Mulia win the South Shore Assembly special, which will be held on March 27.

Mulia has been endorsed by the Democratic, Independence and Conservative parties, and Innamorato says there's a "good synergy" between the three organizations.

Innamorato also wants to keep pressing the Democrats' cause on the GOP South Shore.

"We're building," he told us today. "We're making sure we keep people interested. We want to keep having competitive races."

Looking back, Innamorato says he has no regrets about the Council race, in which he received just 28 percent of the vote.

"Of course I was disappointed we didn't succeed and that the turnout was as low as it was," he said. "We ran a good campaign. But you have to have some reality: One person walks out a winner, the other person walks out the loser. You have to be comfortable with that."

Some political observers said that Innamorato should have gotten a bigger percentage of the vote considering that he received tens of thousands of dollars in city matching funds.

"It was all about turnout," said Innamorato, pointing out that only about 5,300 of the Council district's roughly 87,000 voters came out in the race.

"People just forgot what day it was," he said. "Special elections are always very difficult."

And Innamorato, an Eltingville resident, said he will continue to fly the Democratic flag on the South Shore no matter what.

"I'm committed to building the party, enrolling voters and delivering good candidates to them," he said.